Message Boards

Topic : 08/24 The Dr. Phil House: “Make My Kid a Star,” Part 3

Number of Replies: 550

New Messages This Week: 0

Last Reply On:

Created on : Friday, May 18, 2007, 12:42:02 pm

Author : DrPhilBoard1

(Original Air Date: 05/21/07) Dr. Phil’s child star competition heats up! Seven kids with stars in their eyes face the final leg of the competition in The Dr. Phil House, but do their mothers unwittingly sabotage their chances? After speaking with Veronica, Kiki and Larissa about how they could be a liability to their child’s success, Dr. Phil turns to Kim and Susan. Playing a video clip of Kim’s daughter, Alaina, in an interview, Dr. Phil points out the pressure and stress that she feels and how it may affect her performance in school. Then, Dr. Phil shows a video of Susan assisting her daughter, Meagan, during the dance rehearsals. In the video, Meagan struggles under her demands. Will these mothers adjust their behavior and take on a healthy, supportive role in their child’s career? Then, it’s time for the final talent show! Each child performs on the Dr. Phil stage, in front of his studio audience and a panel of Hollywood’s top talent agents, managers and casting directors, who decide the grand-prize winner. The children receive fabulous prizes for their hard work, but they mean little to one upset mother. Share your thoughts, join the discussion.

As of January, 2009, this message board will become "Read Only" and will be closed to further posting. Please join the NEW Dr. Phil Community to continue your discussions, personalize your message board experience, start a blog and meet new friends.

Talent showcase

The part I am interested in seeing is, after the panel of judges pick a grand prize winner (singular) How will the mothers talk to their kids about the "loss"? Everyone can't win, but that doesn't mean every one of them isn't very very talented. There can be a job for any of them, that will be perfect for their type....so, hopefully they will all feel good about their abilities. I am sure Dr. Phil will tell them, even if their mothers don't!

Enabling erractic bahavior?

Having not yet seen the show, my opinion may be premature but by providing a reward for one of these kids, won't Dr. Phil be enabling the damaging behavior displayed by some of these manically driven, unrealistic "Stage Moms"?

I'm hoping the show has a twist ending whereby the "reward" is based in reality (a college scholarship or professional guidance) rather than encouraging the almost certain to be dashed hopes of instant stardom. I guess we'll see...

05/21 The Dr. Phil House: “Make My Kid a Star,” Part 3

Everyone's really excited for Monday's big finale! We've all had a couple of days now to digest Parts 1 & 2 along with the all the emotions and thoughts we found ourselves processing individually and a family. I can say to Dr. Phil's viewers without hesitation that this experience has been a very valuable learning exercise for Gracie and for our family. In our conversations, Gracie, Kiki, Steve, Warren, Nicole and I all agree that the show brought out some very important issues for us to address as a family if we truly want to be the kind of loving and supportive family that we want to be.

First, we've heard right from Gracie's own words and emotions that she's feeling much more pressure to "make it" than we were previously aware. Sure, we certainly know that Gracie has a natural tendency to take things a little harder and more seriously than other 11 year old kids, but, we had never been confronted with the harsher reality of the self-pressure that she's experiencing now that she's really out there giving her dream her best shot. There's no doubt that we (Kiki, Steve, Nicole and I) owe it to Grace to do a much better job of reinforcing to her that her value as a human being and as our child has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that she's our child and that our love and support will always be absolutely unconditional. We also are going to do a much better job emphasizing to her that the real value of any heartfelt pursuit is always in the journey itself rather than the destination. Trust us, we are just as imperfect as any parent out there watching this special or reading these message boards and we are doing our best to absorb the lessons that Dr. Phil's opporunity has for us and then to apply them in a way that not only helps Gracie be a happier and healthier kid, but, that helps us each be a better parent and a better person.

One interesting by-product of this experience is that I've been able to have great conversations with Warren about the clear risks of seeking fame for fame's sake versus seeking a deep satisfaction from the the craft of being the best actor or actress (or engineer, or attorney, or physician, or fireperson, or financial advisor, or parent et al) that you can become. Kiki and Grace are having similar conversations. We are going to put a lot of effort over the summer when they will both be spending time together here in Kentucky into gaining a perspective on how to have unlimited dreams and ambitions while maintaining a healthy life perspecitve.

Overall, this has been a wonderful, timely and valuable experience for Gracie and for our family! We'll be watching Monday's show with great expectation and a fixed determination to not let the lessons of this experience go unlearned or unapplied. The truth is that each of the kids on this show have lots of talent and given the right set of circumstances and a bit of luck, they will each achieve great things in life. Of course, isn't it that way for most of us in life?

So, we'll all be watching with great interest to see how these great kids perform their own chosen material in front of a live studio audience as well as a panel of industry experts. To this point, remember that the kids have had to perform material that didn't always play to their individual strengths. If you think you know how this whole thing winds up, you might be very surprised! Producers don't like to give away their big endings and great plot twists are par for the course with these type of shows.

Gracie's already had more success during Part 1 & 2 than we could have ever expected. After Part 3 has aired, I'll post my final thoughts about the outcome and a final thanks to Dr. Phil for the opportunity along with our congratulations to the overall winner!

talent?

It will be interesting to see who wins, however.....none of these children are that talented. At best, they are a bit above average.The mothers are pushy, and rude to their own children. The kids might learn something about respect if they were shown some, but their own mothers don't respect them. I believe the mothers are pushing them in this direction simply because they could not achieve it for themselves. It might be more interesing to hear what the fathers, and other family members think of tis whole affair.

what are they thinking?

these people need to wake up and smell the coffee don't they understand that for every word of discouragement is only destroying their child self esteem later in life its going to be hard for their kids to think highly of them self

I am shocked!!!

My daughter at one time wanted to be a "big time" actress as a much as I didn't want it for her (come on ladies name one child star that is a well adjusted and happy young adult) I felt I had to let her try. She was 12 at the time and of course I too thought she was the most talented beautiful....... so we signed with one of the top agencies here in Toronto.

She did her acting and modeling classes. She had 12 auditions and believe it or not 11 call backs. She ended up making 3 international commercials. One audition was for the movie A Series of Unfortunate Events. We actually had the Hollywood script in our hands!!!! She was auditioning for the Violet the lead girl in the movie. They started out with 10,000 girls and my daughter made it to the cut of 200. She was so happy with that. For me it was many sleepless nights knowing that if she did get the part we would have to leave my husband and younger son for about 6 months. I felt sick. Again it kept going through my head that this was not the life I wanted for her.

Finally we got the call she had been waiting for. Her agent called to say that they wanted my daughter for a part in a weekly series. They were shooting a pilot and they would pay her $10,000 for 7 days work. It was late August and shooting would start the 2nd week of September. I had such mixed feelings, happy for her but nervous too. I sat her down and told her expecting her to be excited and jumping up and down. She looked at me and said " I am so sorry mom but I don't want to do it, I really applicate every thing you have done for me but it is so boring sitting around and waiting all the time and I am starting High School and I can't miss 7 days of school."!!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing!!!! We talked about the money and I told her she would have it made for University. She would not have to worry about working and for her to really think about it before I called her agent. She went to her room and 2 hours later she came down stairs and told my husband I that her decision was final and the answer was no. The pressure of starting High School and missing the 1st 2 weeks was too much.

Talk about the moment when I was the proudest of my daughter. She is now in grade 11, an honor roll student, happy with lots of close friends and has no regrets.

05/21 The Dr. Phil House: “Make My Kid a Star,” Part 3

I THINK THESE STAGE MOMS ARE PRESSING THEIR CHILDREN INTO SOMETHING THEY WANTED TO DO AS KIDS EVEN THOUGH THEIR KID DO NOT WANT TO DO IT. I THINK THE KIDS ARE JUST ACTING LIKE THEY WANT TO BE A STAR IN ORDER TO MAKE THE PARENT HAPPY. I SAY LET KIDS BE KIDS...THEY HAVE THEIR WHOLE LIFE TO TRY AND MAKE IT, BUT THEY ONLY HAVE SO LONG TO ACTUALLY DO WHAT KIDS SHOULD DO. STOP TRYING TO MAKE THEM GROW UP SO FAST...YOU WILL MISS THE TIME WHEN THEY WERE KIDS. I ALSO THINK PUTTING 13 YEAR OLD IN SEDUCTIVE CLOTHING IS WRONG. THATS HOW YOUNG KIDS GET KIDNAPPED AND RAPED. I ALSO THINK THEY ARE PUTTING THEIR KIDS ON THE ROAD TO DISASTER. BY THE TIME THE KIDS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY THINK FOR THEMSELVES THEY WONT BE ABLE TO WITHOUT HAVING AN EMOTIONAL CRISIS. THESE KIDS WILL MOST LIKELY BECOME HIGH MAINTENANCE DUE TO THE FACT EVERYTHING WAS HANDED TO THEM FOR SO LONG. HOLDING DOWN A REGULAR JOB WILL BE A CHALLENGE DUE TO THE FACT IT WONT BE THEIR WAY OR WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. MOMS COME ON LET YOUR CHILDREN LIVE THEIR LIFE'S....IF YOU WANT THEM TO BE ON STAGE PUT THEM IN A TALENT SHOW. BY THE WAY EDUCATION SHOULD BE NUMBER ONE ON THEIR LIST AND YOURS TOO. AS FOR WHO I THINK SHOULD WIN THE SHOW...GRACIE AND HER MOM DUE TO THE FACT THEY HAVE WORKED TOGETHER WITHOUT YELLING AT ONE ANOTHER AND SEEM TO GET ALONG JUST FINE WITHOUT PRESSURE. I THINK ITS FUNNY THAT THE KIDS GET ALONG BUT THE PARENTS WANT TO SHOW OUT THE OTHERS...AREN'T THEY SUPPOSE TO BE THE ROLE MODELS?